On June 26, a shadowy entity called Aqua1 Foundation, which claimed to be based in the United Arab Emirates, announced that it was purchasing $100 million in WLFI tokens, the largest single purchase at the time. Now, months later, the Financial Times has allegedly uncovered a link hilariously linking the Trump crypto empire to a group of now-dissolved hardwood flooring companies.
The mysterious Chinese businessman behind Aqua1, who met with Eric Trump in Dubai, was Guren “Bobby” Zhou, who has executive roles in multiple businesses and is being investigated in Britain for money laundering, according to the U.K.’s National Crime Agency and a document filed in an immigration case at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
“The Chinese businessman who met with Eric Trump in Dubai was Guren “Bobby” Zhou, who holds executive roles in multiple businesses and is under investigation in Britain for money laundering.” https://t.co/5noairMyCc
—Steven G Young (@youngsteveng) October 28, 2025
Trump Crypto Empire and Its Hilarious Ties to Thirteen Now-Defunct UK Flooring Companies
A group called Aqua Labs Investment LLC told Reuters around the time of the WLFI .cwp-coin-chart svg path of $100 million { stroke width: 0.65 !important; } .cwp-coin-widget-container .cwp-graph-container.positive svg path: nth of type (2) { stroke: #008868 !important; } .cwp-coin-widget-container .cwp-coin-trend.positive { color: #008868 !important; background color: transparent! Important; } .cwp-coin-widget-container .cwp-coin-popup-holder .cwp-coin-trend.positive { border: 1px solid #008868; border-radius: 3px; } .cwp-coin-widget-container .cwp-coin-trend.positive::before { border-bottom: 4px solid #008868 !important; } .cwp-coin-widget-container .cwp-coin-price-holder .cwp-coin-trend-holder .cwp-trend { background-color: transparent !important; } .cwp-coin-widget-container .cwp-graph-container.negative svg path: nth of type (2) { stroke: #A90C0C !important; } .cwp-coin-widget-container .cwp-coin-popup-holder .cwp-coin-trend.negative { border: 1px solid #A90C0C; border-radius: 3px; } .cwp-coin-widget-container .cwp-coin-trend.negative { color: #A90C0C !important; background color: transparent! Important; } .cwp-coin-widget-container .cwp-coin-trend.negative::before { border-top: 4px solid #A90C0C !important; }
4.07%
Official World Liberty Financials
W.L.F.
Price
$0.1476
4.07% /24h
Volume in 24 hours
$192.10 million
Price 7d
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purchase that “was a business decision consistent with its focus on promoting regulated and scalable digital asset ecosystems.”
An Aqua1 spokesperson added: “Mr. Guren (“Bobby”) Zhou has never been convicted of any financial crime in any jurisdiction, and any implication to the contrary is defamatory and false.”
However, in the Financial Times article, Companies House is alleged to show that Guren Zhou worked as a director at 13 overlapping flooring companies in the UK, including Iwood Flooring, Glamorous Spirit, Stile Interiors, Underlay Republic and Flooring Republic.
All of the listed companies operated between Southampton, Preston and London and were active between 2008 and 2019. All of the listed flooring companies have since been dissolved.
Interestingly, Anbo Commercial, Anbo UK, Anbo Investments, Anbo Stile and Anbo International, where Zhou was listed as a director, were among the last to dissolve.
The Anbo website is still running and describes how the group was founded by “highly respected timber manufacturer” Zhou Senior in Shanghai in 1989. Exports to the US began in 1991. Bobby Zhou eventually took over and brought the company to the UK around 2005.
Aqua 1 announces strategic purchase of $100 million worth of World Liberty financial governance tokens to help shape and accelerate the adoption of decentralized finance https://t.co/qjryzLv2dx
— Aqua1 Foundation (@Aqua1Fndn) July 10, 2025
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Timeline of Anbo’s turn from flats to cryptocurrency investments
Now we have the origin story of how a Chinese manufacturing company ended up in the UK and was run by the face of Aqua1, Bobby Zhou. How did Zhou end up in Dubai, meeting the president’s son and investing $100 million in Trump’s crypto empire through his WLFI token?
In 2017, Anbo acquired Leeds-based online retailer Posh Flooring, securing a foothold in the northern England laminate market. A media report at the time said the merger would “simultaneously support Posh Flooring’s expansion into Dubai and the United Arab Emirates.”
This gives us a clear idea of how Zhou ended up in Dubai, but still leaves us scratching our heads about how, just eight years ago, the Chinese businessman was expanding a luxury flooring company from the UK to the United Arab Emirates.
This is made clear through an administrator’s report from 2018, which said:
“In 2017, the interior design and construction industries changed such that management could no longer predict demand for products. Between January and November 2017, the Company [Anbo International] average sales of approximately £523k per month. In the latest period, December 2017 to March 2018, average sales were approximately £94,000 per month.”
According to Anbo’s website, between 2018 and 2023, the firm expanded into the following sectors: global banking, technology, medicine, biotechnology, wealth management, metaverse sector and entertainment.
Looking at this timeline, it is clear that the obvious next step for Zhou and his company Anbo was the cryptocurrency sector. It’s a funny turn of events that in less than eight years, Zhou went from supplying hardwood floors in the UK to landing nine-figure crypto deals with Eric Trump and the Trump crypto empire in general.
The Trump-backed crypto asset WLFI has a market capitalization of around $4.1 billion, making it the 42nd largest digital asset by market capitalization, and has a daily trading volume of $246 million, per CoinGecko data.
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